DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

NAME

DESCRIPTION

The pxeboot_tftp bootloader is a modified version of the system third-
stage bootstrap loader(8) configured to run under Intel's Preboot Execu-
tion Environment (PXE) system. PXE is a form of smart boot ROM, built
into Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 and 3Com 3c905c Ethernet cards, and Eth-
ernet-equipped Intel motherboards. PXE supports DHCP configuration and
provides low-level NIC access services. The pxeboot_tftp bootloader
retrieves the kernel, modules, and other files via TFTP. In combination
with a NFS-mounted root file system, pxeboot_tftp allows for easy, EEP-
ROM-burner free construction of diskless machines.
The pxeboot_tftp binary is loaded just like any other boot file, by spec-
ifying it in the DHCP server's configuration file. Below is a sample
configuration for the ISC DHCP v2 server:
option domain-name "example.com";
option routers 10.0.0.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 10.0.0.255;
option domain-name-servers 10.0.0.1;
server-name "DHCPserver";
server-identifier 10.0.0.1;
default-lease-time 120;
max-lease-time 120;
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
filename "boot/pxeboot_tftp";
range 10.0.0.10 10.0.0.254;
option root-path "10.0.0.1:/netbootroot";
}
pxeboot_tftp recognizes next-server and optionroot-path directives as
the server and path to NFS mount for file requests, respectively, or the
server to make TFTP requests to. Note that pxeboot_tftp expects to fetch
/boot/dloader.rc from the specified server before loading any other
files.
In all other respects, pxeboot_tftp acts just like loader(8).
As PXE is still in its infancy, some firmware versions may not work prop-
erly. The pxeboot_tftp bootloader has been extensively tested on version
0.99 of Intel firmware; pre-release versions of the newer 2.0 firmware
are known to have problems. Check with the device's manufacturer for
their latest stable release.
For further information on Intel's PXE specifications and Wired for Man-
agement (WfM) systems, see http://developer.intel.com/ial/wfm/.

SEE ALSO

HISTORY

The pxeboot_tftp bootloader first appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.

AUTHORS

The pxeboot_tftp bootloader was written by John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
and Paul Saab <ps@FreeBSD.org>. This manual page was written by Doug
White <dwhite@FreeBSD.org>.
DragonFly 4.1 October 6, 2010 DragonFly 4.1